Press Report 28th January 2022

The South Hams Chess Club continues with most of their games being played online, but last Thursday saw them open up at the Regal club, Church Street for their Torbay Division - one match against Newton Abbot. A strong Newton team came out 3 ½ - ½ winners, with only Steve Levy getting on the scoring sheet for the South Hams with a draw against Martin Goldscmodt. The significance of this game was that Steven and Martin were both members of the NYCA chess club in Covent Garden, London nearly fifty years ago and hadn’t seen each other since that time. They spent the first 10 minutes of the Newton team arriving at the Regal, talking about the game they played back then which may have also ended drawn, so things haven’t changed much.

Also, on the same night a big surprise result happened with Houdini Trevor Hurt inflicting a defeat on Tony Tatam much to Tony’s surprise! This was after Tony who in his past two games having beaten the club’s top two players Steve Levy and Phil McConnell, completely turning the Homan League upside down.

Other results have seen Steve beat Clifford Peach, Arthur Doble getting a great result against David Archer with a draw, as well as Arthur beating Alan Davies, Trevor Hurt beat Ken Ashby, Steve Levy beating James Fowler and last but not least David Archer beating Cliff Peach.

With covid rules slightly easing we may see some members returning to over the board games at the Regal in the near future. Anyone wanting further information about the chess club, please check online at southhamschessclub.com or ring Clifford Peach 01752 407757 or Phil McConnell on 01803 834135.